A former Special Adviser on Media to the
former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, has said many
journalists failed to appreciate the delicate and sensitive nature of
his job, as they pestered him to react to some national issues while he
held the post.
He said this on Monday in Abeokuta on
the sideline of the 2015 annual lecture of the Ogun State
Correspondents’ chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
Abati, who had earlier spoken on the
theme, ‘Media and Economic Renaissance,’ said some journalists covering
the State House did complain that he would not pick their calls whenever
they wanted to get his reactions.
He noted that some of them failed to
realise that he was a government spokesman and not a ‘journalist’ at
that point in time, as they still expected his scathing criticisms and
personal conviction.
He said, “Once you are in government,
you are no more a journalist. It’s just like a royal court, the king
does not go out there, he sends someone to deliver his message to the
people. You are an agent to a principal.
“The job of a government spokesman is
delicate and sensitive. If you are a careless spokesperson, you will
blow up a country. It is not everything that a hunter sees in the bush
that he talks about.
“But my colleagues, the journalists,
still wanted me to talk as Abati, the columnist or Abati as a panelist
in Patito’s Gang. Loquacity is not an asset when you are a government
spokesman.”
Dwelling on the topic of the lecture,
Abati called on media owners and journalists to be abreast of the
economic policies of government, since such policies would affect them
and their organisations.
He said, “We must prioritise issues of
economic diversification. We must be interested in economic policies, we
must acquire the skills to interrogate and analyse economic policies
and we must interrogate people at the helm of affairs so that we can be
crusaders of good society.”
He urged journalists to put political
office holders on their toes to implement viable economic policies for
national development.
Abati, who was the former chairman, The Guardian Newspaper Editorial
Board, noted that most of the past economic policies put up by
successive governments failed due to lack of dedication and continuity
on the part of public office holders.
He bemoaned the idea of a new
administration wanting to start everything afresh even when the
immediate past government had some viable projects and programmes that
would put the country on the path of sustainable development.
He said former President Jonathan
introduced over 60 economic reforms which, he claimed, had been
discarded by the incumbent administration, noting such lack of
continuity in economic policies would breed socio-political instability.
He noted that the agricultural policy of the Jonathan administration dwelt on the entire value chain in that sector.
Earlier, the chairman of the occasion,
the CEO of Rock City FM and a former Commissioner for Information in
Ogun State, Mr. Niran Malaolu, advised journalists to stop ‘crucifying’
their colleagues when they were appointed as commissioners, advisers, or
senior special assistants.
Rather, he said, they should support them and make them succeed.
PUNCH
Post a Comment